The conference was jointly organised by the libraryand the Austrian Embassy, and aimed to bring Austrian literature closerto Vietnam and seek new opportunities for exchanges between Austrian andVietnamese writers in the near future.
Despite a smallpopulation of eight million, Austria has attracted many people for itsrich literature. The most well-known Austrian writers in Vietnam includeStefan Zweig, Elfriede Jelinek, Daniel Kehlmann and Franz Kafka, whoseworks have been translated into Vietnamese.
At the conference,translator Hoang Thuy Toan said he was happy to have had the chance totranslate the great book of Austrian writer Fritz Jensen, which showedhis admiration and love towards Vietnam and the courage of theVietnamese people. Reminiscing About Vietnam (Vietnam Dat Nuoc Cua NhungNguoi Anh Hung) was published in 1955 and describes the establishmentof the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
Translator Quang Chienexpressed his emotions of the famous poem collection of Eric Fridge thathe translated into Vietnamese, titled Und Vietnam Und (And VietnamAnd). The collection denounces the American War in Vietnam.
Translator, writer and poet Duong Tuong said that he burst into tearswhen he was translating The Letter of an Unknown Woman (Buc Thu CuaNguoi dan ba khong quen) written by Stefan Zweig.
At theconference, Austrian Professor Johann Holzner briefed delegates aboutthe development of Austrian literature and its evolution since 1989. Atthat time, many Austrian writers left the country and continued topursue their writing careers elsewhere, while some foreign writers movedto Austria and began to compose here.
Nowadays, the definitionof "Austrian literature" is widely understood as literature written inAustria or by Austrian writers, which is mostly, but not exclusively,written in German.
Austrian literature has a close connectionwith German literature, and the gap between German literature andAustrian is porous, due to rich and complex cultural exchanges.-VNA